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Serge Otsi Simon and Pascal Quevillon have been embroiled in a dispute over a housing development on land that’s part of the Kanesatake Mohawks' decades-old unresolved land claim. That dispute is spilling into the municipal election.

Mayor, grand chief trade barbs

Quevillon said Simon's support for Provencher amounts to "interference," and that Simon is using the candidate, who is new to municipal politics.

"It's in the interests of [Simon] to have a puppet," Quevillon said.

Relations haven't always been so bitter between the mayor and the grand chief. In 2015, on the 25th anniversary of the Oka Crisis, the two led a reconciliation process that aimed to leave old wounds behind.

Mohawk leader Ellen Gabriel, far left, and Oka Mayor Pascal Quevillon talk during a protest at the site of the Collines D'Oka housing development in July. (Matt D'Amours/CBC)

At that time, Oka's municipal council and Kanesatake's band council promised to work together to protect The Pines.